FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT LOW COST CARRIERS - PAGE 4

Frontier Airlines is beefing up its network at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport as it works to connect South Floridians to more places than its Denver home base. Last week, Frontier added Cleveland to its route map from Fort Lauderdale, joining Denver and Trenton, N.J. On Sept. 9, the low-cost carrier will add nonstop flights between Fort Lauderdale and Washington Dulles International Airport. "We definitely see an opportunity in the Fort Lauderdale market," said Tyri Squyres, Frontier's vice president for marketing.

Spirit Airlines remained the top carrier at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in 2012 with 18.5 percent of passenger traffic, but not by a wide margin with competitor JetBlue Airways following closely with 17.8 percent. Still there was a period when the Miramar-based carrier slipped to No. 2 behind JetBlue, which last year increased capacity in South Florida by 11.4 percent through new and expanded routes. As for 2013, Spirit held second place in January with 17.4 percent of passenger traffic, following JetBlue's 18 percent, according to the latest airport data available.

Spirit Airlines is expanding service between Florida and Cleveland, just in time for winter. Daily nonstop service between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport will begin Feb. 5, the low-cost carrier, based in Miramar, announced Wednesday. Daily service between Cleveland and Orlando will begin Jan. 15, along with weekly winter flights between Cleveland and Tampa and Fort Myers. Spirit also is adding flights between Cleveland and Los Angeles, Myrtle Beach, Las Vegas and Dallas/Fort Worth.

Spirit Airlines is bullish on growing its fleet significantly in the next decade. The Miramar-based low cost carrier announced Tuesday it's entered a non-binding agreement for an order of 75 Airbus A320s, including 45 A320neo or new engine option aircraft. That's in addition to an existing order of 33 planes that are set for delivery starting this month through the end of 2015. The new order of planes would then be delivered from 2016 to 2021, Spirit said in a release. “We are excited to expand our partnership with Airbus and grow our fleet into the next decade,” said Ben Baldanza, President and CEO of Spirit Airlines. “These aircraft will allow Spirit to liberate more cities from their high fares, while giving passengers choices to customize their travel experience.” The new aircraft order is subject to final negotiations and corporate approvals by Airbus and Spirit.

Spirit Airlines has signed a new decade-long lease for its Miramar headquarters at 2800 Executive Way and is expanding operations into an additional 14,625-square foot of office space in the Miramar Park of Commerce, officials announced Friday. In total the low-cost carrier will occupy about 70,819-square feet in the commerce park and is expected to take occupancy of the extra office space at 2844 and 2854 Corporate Way soon, Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza told employees during a rally.

It wasn't exactly the way an airline likes to introduce a new flight. PEOPLExpress' inaugural flight No. 302 from Palm Beach International Airport to Newport News, Va., was delayed about 2 1/2 hours Monday due to the late arrival of the aircraft from Newport News. A spokesman for the low-cost carrier said the aircraft was initially delayed in Newark, N.J., possibly because of bad weather, which then hampered its departure from Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport for West Palm Beach.

Spirit Airlines ranked among the world's most profitable airlines in 2013, according to an Airline Weekly profitability ranking released Monday. The Miramar-based low-cost carrier was No. 2 with a 17 percent operating profit margin, following Panama's Copa Airlines, which topped the list of 68 global airlines with 21 percent. In third place was Allegiant Air, with a 16 percent operating margin. Last year Spirit was also No. 1 for operating margin among the 12 North American airlines profiled, the Fort Lauderdale trade publication's report showed.

No airline gets more consumer complaints than Spirit. Hoping to change that, the Miramar-based airline launched a new marketing campaign Wednesday that's both informative and fun. The new "Less Money, More Go" campaign includes racy-but-fun videos to explain their "bare fare" pricing model, a revitalized yellow-colored website and a new logo as part of Spirit's push to reduce the surprise factor and unhappiness some customers experience when they...

The last few weeks have been very interesting with the constant news articles focusing on growth in Broward County. Some folks have indicated that they believe Broward County should play a more significant role in growth in our municipalities. A case in point is the airport expansion. On Dec. 9, the Broward County Commission voted to expand the airport's south runway utilizing revenues other than taxpayer dollars. The latest correspondence from the Broward County Aviation Division, with the following quote, "Utilization of general fund revenues to pre-fund noise mitigation initiatives, with guaranteed reimbursements from future airport enterprise funds," sure indicates to me that the Aviation Division is looking to use taxpayer dollars to partially fund this endeavor.

Eastern Airlines and Transport Workers Union Local 553 have made no progress since Friday in last-minute negotiations toward a new contract for 7,200 flight attendants, a federal labor official said Saturday. "I`m afraid we have not progressed to a place where we are in any different position than we were yesterday," said National Mediation Board Chairman Walter Wallace, who is supervising the talks at a Miami hotel. "Both sides are working hard and are very anxious to reach an agreement," Wallace said.